Raym Geis, M.D., SIIM chair, spoke about how SIIM is changing its focus away from radiology and more toward informatics of all medical images. Now that every modality is starting to de-silo images, what are the next steps toward standardization?

Gary Levine, M.D., president of the National Consortium of Breast Centers, predicts a future of personalized breast screening and addresses related challenges that will need to be addressed for successful implementation.

The BodyTom is the latest development in NeuroLogica's portable computed tomography imaging line. It is a portable, full body, 32 slice CT that boasts an impressive 85 cm gantry and 60 cm field of view. The battery powered BodyTom can be transported from room to room and is compatible with PACS, surgical navigation, electronic medical records, and planning systems. Its unique capabilities provide high quality CT images wherever needed, including the clinic, ICU, OR and emergency/trauma department. The combination of rapid scan time, flexible settings and immediate image viewing makes the BodyTom a valuable tool to any facility needing versatile real time CT imaging.

IBA Dosimetry is excited to launch its new Digital Imaging Analysis Software IQ Analyzer Primus at the RSNA 2013. Image Quality assurance can be achieved in three simple steps: Select-Analyze-Report. The IQ Analyzer Primus can perform, fast, quantitative and reproducible constancy measurement on multiple imaging modalities, including CR, DR and RF systems. IQ Analyzer Primus provides an efficient selection and comparison of clinical phantom images from your local network and PACS system. The software includes a DICOM header tool for fast and easy selection of images. Evaluations of six individual IQ parameters is performed automatically in less than one minute. The parameters include positioning, signal to noise ratio, uniformity, dynamic scale, high contrast resolution and geometrical distortion. Users definable IQ tolerances in both absolute and percentage values, allow for simple red, yellow, and green color coded pass / fail criteria. IQ Analyzer Primus reports are available in both PDF and MS Excel formats.

Greg Freiherr speaks from the show floor on day four of the 2013 annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

At RSNA 2012, Hitachi featured its Echelon Oval 1.5T MRI system, which features the widest bore on the market at 74 cm, a wide table and the ability to perform non-contrast MR angiography exams. Hitachi also highlighted new features for its Scenaria CT system, which is upgradeable to a 128-slice system, offers new, faster iterative reconstruction software and cardiac imaging packages.

ITN Editor Dave Fornell highlights his choices for the most innovative radiology technologies and trends at Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), 2012. Choices include the first wireless ultrasound transducer, noiseless MRI, a 640-slice CT scanner and a printer than creates sculptures from 3-D datasets.

Find more current news and video from RSNA

Neurologica demonstrated its BodyTom portable whole-body CT scanner during RSNA 2012. The system is the first mobile scanner that can be moved on casters from room to room and is battery powered. The system has an 85 cm gantry and a 60 cm field of view. Unlike traditional CT scanners, the gantry moves over the patient, rather than the patient table being moved through the gantry. This facilitates use in the operating room, where it is not easy to move a patient who may be connected to several devices.

Imaging Technology News talks to Mark Watson, executive director of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and Steve Drew, RSNA's executive director for scientific assembly and informatics, about the upcoming RSNA 2012 event, as well as what's ahead for radiologists in 2013.

The Carestream DRX-Revolution is a mobile X-ray system on wheels powered by a wireless DRX detector.

Web Stayman, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, presents an overview of research he presented at the 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C. It involves an iterative technique for computed tomography (CT) to better contend with implants to improve image-guided surgery or interventions. The technique takes knowledge about the components and integrates it into the reconstruction to eliminate artifacts.

Find more news and video from AAPM

ITN Editor Dave Fornell takes a tour off some of the most innovative new cardiac imaging technology advances at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2011 annual meeting. 

Find more RSNA news and video

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is taking steps to help guide the future of its specialty, said AAPM President Tony Seibert, Ph.D. During the group's 2011 meeting, Seibert explained there is a shift in healthcare priorities from research to a more clinical emphasis. AAPM is encouraging younger members to get involved and keep research as an important part of medical physics, so advances can be made to eventually improve patient care.

Imaging is expanding its role in radiotherapy systems, which will require additional medical physics in that area, he said. In addition, AAPM is working with both government agencies and industry in efforts to push forward new protocols, and technology.

For more information: www.aapm.org

Find more coverage of AAPM

American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) President Mike Herman, Ph.D., radiation oncology medical physicist, Mayo Clinic, explains the role of the society and its goal to improve patient care. Activities include sharing the latest scientific research, developing best practices, education, setting guidelines for certification and the roles of various staff under mediacl physicists, and how physicists can better serve their hospitals. The main focus in sessions at the AAPM annual meeting include patient safety concerning radiation dose and how to lower these doses in practice. Herman said AAPM is also calling for a national patient safety event recording process to make it easier to see where there are mistakes so they can be addressed. The society is also Herman said the process needs to be easy to access and use. He spoke to ITN at the some 2010, 52nd annual AAPM meeting 

Find more news and videos from AAPM meetings

Dr. Frederic Deschamps of the Institut Gustavy Roussy, France, explains his use of the Innova TrackVision application to plan and guide needle trajectories during vertebroplasty and oncology procedures in the interventional lab under angiographic fluoroscopy.

Performing needle procedures in the interventional suite frees up your CT system and provides better access to the patient. However, under fluoroscopic guidance, it may be challenging and time consuming to find the right entry point and advance the needle to avoid critical structures.

TrackVision 2 provides live 3-D needle guidance during your procedures. It lets you advance the needle down a planned trajectory overlaid on live fluoroscopy, visualizing any deviations from the desired path.

Highlights of the system include:

• Support multiple trajectories.
• 3D trajectories are registered in real time to C-arm and table movements, field of view and Source-to-Image Distance in real time.
• Visualize patient motion with the bone anatomy overlay and correct it at table side.
• Send bull eye's view angle to the gantry in a single click.

Advanced breast imaging capabilities added elastography to the list, fused MR/CT image data combined with angiography navigation systems to guide percutaneous oncology, and 3.0 Tesla MR debut at the 2009 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). All these innovations headlined the news at RSNA. To find out where these trends are leading radiology and radiation oncology, Imaging Technology News spoke with The MarkeTech Group's (TMTG) CEO and Founder Dr. Christian Renaudin. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Renaudin analyzes what these key market trends mean to diagnostic imaging. The MarkeTech Group is a CASRO certified international marketing research and consulting firm focused exclusively on medical technology.  As a leading ad hoc Voice-of-Customer solution provider in medical imaging, The MarkeTech Group attends the annual RSNA meeting to investigate what new technological innovations in diagnostic imaging manufacturers are displaying on the show room floor. For more information: www.themarketechgroup.com

The HITECH Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and its impact on radiology is foremost on the minds of everyone in healthcare. Critical questions surrounding the language of the act remain unanswered. To gain better insight on the matter, Imaging Technology News spoke with healthcare IT research and development expert Don Woodlock, vice president and global GM of GE Healthcare Integrated IT Solutions.

Imaging Technology News (ITN): Will PACS and RIS qualify for reimbursement under the ARRA?

Don Woodlock (DW): The centerpiece of and the spirit of the HITECH Act is about adoption of general purpose EMR that go across the hospital or physician office EMRs for multi-specialty groups. The definition of meaningful use does mention images; all of the patient's test results have to be in the EMR, including images and imaging reports. Images need to be part of the electronic health record; [there is] mention of RIS/PACS, but it's not clearly spelled out that the stimulus will pay for RIS/PACS. I think the area where we need most clarity is in the outpatient- imaging environment. They are physicians, they see patients, and RIS and PACS is all they have, and they don't have another electronic medical record in that environment. Itâ??s my feeling that stimulus funds should be provided for physicians [who] use technology even though it isn't a traditional EMR.

ITN: On June 16th, the definition of Meaningful use? was released and included reimbursement for imaging described as multimedia (e.g. X-rays). A public comment period followed to assist Congress in clarifying this definition. What is the industry doing to represent radiology and convince Congress to include radiology's needs under the stimulus package?

DW: We are part of several groups that will provide feedback on helping Congress clarify this definition. We are part of Access to Medical Imaging Coalition, which is a group of imaging vendors. I talked to the chair of SIIM, Dr. Erickson from the Mayo Clinic and SIIM was going to get involved in defining meaningful use.

ITN: How will growing volumes of patient data impact radiology?

DW: There will be a big indirect effect on radiology. Radiology has been well automated for many years with RIS and PACS installed over the last decade. But they are basically working with physicians that have not automated at all, and I think the main impact that this Act will have is that there will be EMRs everywhere — hospitals and referring physicians will have EMRs as well. The way radiology interoperates and the workflow of the community will be a lot better when everybody has an EMR. A couple of examples are the radiologists [who] need the complete patient record to do a good job reading the patient exam. That includes patient history, problems, information about the order; patient allergies will be accessible to the radiologists in the click of the button. The orders will come in, in a cleaner fashion; right now they come in on paper, and radiology can help provide decision support in the ordering process, so that the right test is ordered for the right patient and the report will come in with all of the information that the radiologist needs. Then, inside radiology they will still use RIS and PACS to read and report on the exam, but then on the way back, the images and the reports will be embedded in the EMR so they will be widely available to every ordering physician that should have access. So the work of the radiologist will be more widely available to physicians that need it and the communication between the radiologists and the rest of the care team will be more effective once everyone is well-automated with IT systems.

ITN: Will the referring physicians be viewing all of the images on the EMR?

DW: That's right. [For] All the physicians outside of the radiology, their view of the world will be through the EMR. They will go through the EMR to see the full patient record including the imaging tests, the reports and will probably launch a browser to the images. So, we don't see the EMR becoming a PACS; the images will still be in the PACS, but there will be links to those images and Web browsers embedded in the EMR, so it will be easy for physicians to have access to this information.

ITN: Will the viewer in the EMR also have diagnostic capabilities?

DW: Probably not. In terms of a 6 mega pixel workstation, that will still exist in radiology. But these other physicians will have Web based tools and they may have access to diagnostic workstations and Web viewers, but that's not really what they are after. They want to see the images, and sometimes use 3-D tools, but they are not using it for primary diagnosis.

ITN: How will interfacing radiology PACS and EMRs impact workflow?

DW: The workflow will be much more streamlined. So, on the inbound side with the orders and the EMR information, we can eliminate paper with electronic order, we can make sure the right test is ordered.